Conference trio to spotlight food allergy prevention, treatment

Key takeaways:

• Working groups at the Global Food Allergy Prevention Summit will develop a roadmap for action.
• Concurrent conferences will focus on pediatrics and equity in treating food allergy.

Since there is so much going on in food allergy studies and care — and so much more that needs to be done — the Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research is having three simultaneous conferences this summer, and everyone is invited.

“We definitely want this to be inclusive,” Ruchi S. Gupta, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and member of the Healio Allergy/Asthma Peer Perspective Board, told Healio.

Food allergy prevention

First, the Global Food Allergy Prevention Summit is scheduled for June 30 through July 2 at the Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center at Lurie Children’s and Northwestern University in Chicago.

After last year’s conference focused on how to prevent food allergies, Gupta said, working groups participating in this year’s conference will develop a roadmap to get there.

“Anything new from last year?” she asked. “What new data do we need to create to be able to move forward? How are we going to do that? And what is our timeline for doing that?”

Strategy sessions will address the molecular mechanisms of prevention, influences on the gut microbiome, the role of the skin in food allergy development, early dietary influences, early treatment and secondary prevention, and environmental factors.

“There’s a whole working group on skin because we know that skin is a big part of prevention,” Gupta said.

Also, secondary prevention is “a big deal,” she continued.

“Now that we’re discovering these kids with food allergies early, we have a potential opportunity to reverse it if we start treatment early,” Gupta said.

Experts and attendees will include clinicians as well as researchers and representatives from the NIH and from industry.

“We have some concrete steps that need to be taken next,” Gupta said. “Everyone needs to be in the room together.”

Later, industry partners in prevention, treatment, devices and diagnostics will share their updates, as will foundations, patient organizations, payers and policymakers, before everyone reconvenes on day 2 to hear what the working groups have developed.

“All of them will come together on the last day to share their 5-year plan with the whole group, and everyone will get an opportunity to comment,” Gupta said. “Then we will put it in writing, get it published, so it’s out there for the world to see. And hopefully, that will initiate collaborations, new studies, and data to move the needle and improve food allergy prevention.”

Pediatric food allergies

Scheduled for June 30, the Pediatric Food Allergy Care Conference is open to pediatricians, family practitioners, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses and “anyone who has a role in caring for children,” Gupta said.

Since these professionals are on the front lines of talking to families about preventing allergies and introducing children to potential allergens early, Gupta said, the goal is to help pediatric clinicians better understand how to do that.

“We also see from our research that a lot of children, especially those in rural areas, and those with Medicaid, don’t actually make it to an allergist,” Gupta said.

These primary care providers need to be able to properly diagnose and manage food allergy until these children can get to an allergist, she continued.

“How can they manage some of these children to the best of their ability, and how do they get access to allergists?” Gupta asked. “Let’s work together to help them best diagnose and manage kids with food allergies.”

Experts also will explore how comorbid conditions including asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema may impact food allergy along with emerging diseases such as food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome, or FPIES, and eosinophilic esophagitis.

“I hear from a lot of my pediatric colleagues, like, ‘OK, we’ve heard of these. Help us better understand them,’” Gupta said.

Advancing equity

Finally, June 30 also will include the Summit for Advancing Equity in Food Allergy, including four key panels.

“This one too is really an incredible opportunity as we advance in food allergy with new prevention, new treatments and new diagnosis,” Gupta said. “It is really important for us to keep our eye on making these advances accessible to underserved communities.”

The first panel will explore daily life for people with food allergy.

“How do we make sure that adults, children, everyone with food allergies has access to safe foods, to medications like epinephrine?” Gupta said. “Most things have the precautionary label on it. So how do they get safe foods consistently?”

Gupta also said that she and her colleagues have been advocating to have the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children add peanut butter to its packages to aid in early introduction, but the program declined to do so.

“Or how do we get Medicaid to cover food as medicine for children with food allergies?” she continued.

The second panel will tackle prevention and ensuring that underserved families can access education about early introduction to potential allergens. The third will examine diagnosis and management for these families, and the fourth will explore treatment.

“We’ve got big news in food allergy and new treatments coming out,” Gupta said. “How do we make sure that those treatments are accessible to all children, especially the ones in those underserved areas, and low-income, minority children?”

Although many allergists perform oral immunotherapy, Gupta said, peanut (Arachis hypogaea) allergen powder-dnfp (Palforzia, Aimmune Therapeutics) is the only treatment approved by the FDA, so families have to pay for other approaches out of pocket.

“Low-income children and adults will not have access to those treatments,” she said.

And while the FDA has also approved omalizumab (Xolair; Genentech, Novartis) for food allergy, Gupta added, she also asked how physicians can ensure that Medicaid covers it.

“It’s exciting that we have prevention and treatments,” Gupta said. “But will that increase disparities if we don’t truly figure out how to make sure it’s accessible to everyone?”

Again, panels will include clinicians and researchers as well as representatives from the NIH and industry, policymakers, payors and caregivers.

“Our goal is to understand what the barriers are and then what we can do as solutions,” Gupta said. “Let’s make a plan. Let’s make a timeline. Let’s commit to making sure that we increase equity with all these new advances.”

Other attractions

Gupta noted the “all-star” lineup of speakers, including Alkis Togias, MD, chief of the allergy, asthma and airway biology branch at the division of allergy, immunology and transplantation of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH.

“He has been a big supporter of food allergy research in general, and disparities and prevention and access to care,” Gupta said. “I’m excited that he has agreed to come to all of the conferences, along with other NIH leaders.”

LEAP study authors Gideon Lack, MB, BCh, professor of pediatric allergy, and Helen A. Brough, MB, BS, consultant in pediatric allergy, both at King’s College London, will be speaking as well.

“That’s pretty incredible,” Gupta said.

Experts on omics, the microbiome, the skin, secondary prevention and other topics from Italy, Australia and throughout the United States also will be on hand.

“They’re all so fabulous and I’m grateful for all of them,” Gupta said.

The conferences will feature a poster session and a networking event as well, designed to encourage conversation and interaction.

“Everyone will be able to meet everyone,” Gupta said.

“I’m really excited for primary care providers to be able to talk to allergists and for everyone to be able to talk to industry and NIH and the payers and policymakers,” she continued. “That’s where I feel like ideas start evolving and connections are made for future collaborations.”

Travel grants are available for interested parties who otherwise may be unable to attend.

“I really want to bring in pediatric providers from rural areas who may not have access and are doing so much on their own, providers who take care of low-income children on Medicaid and in the Federally Qualified Health Centers,” Gupta said.

Providers from the military, who often lack access to these kinds of opportunities, she continued, also are eligible. So are policymakers, nonprofit representatives and even families involved in food allergy.

“I’m grateful that we’ve gotten a good amount of sponsorship that we can make travel grants possible,” Gupta said. “If we can offer travel grants and get them here so that they can learn, we would love to do that.”

Registration for all three conferences is now available online.

For more information:

Ruchi S. Gupta, MD, MPH, can be reached at r-gupta@northwestern.edu.